NASA Plans to Return to Moon With New Space Vehicles

With a new generation of space vehicles designed to be more powerful and safer than the aging fleet of shuttles that will soon be retired, NASA plans to put humans on the moon again by 2018, after an absence of almost half a century, the agency's administrator said today.The next generation of spacecraft, similar in shape to the Apollo space capsules, will use an improved, blunt-body crew capsule that will accommodate up to six people, the administrator, Michael D. Griffin, said at a news conference. The new rocket could be orbiting in space by 2014.

The new program is NASA's response to the vision for space exploration laid out by President Bush on Jan. 14, 2004, five months after the Columbia accident board's report.

Mr. Bush said then that he wanted the United States "to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system." He also called for the retirement of the space shuttles by 2010 and the creation of the crew exploration vehicle for ferrying astronauts to the international space station and ultimately to the moon and Mars.